[jobegrabber]

Sound's like it's quite a lot to live on if you have enough cash on hand to travel only "mostly" on PEP.

>That's the point. They are NOT!

Your private pension might not be - but with Health Care, business expenses and certain type of insurances there's more than "virtually no deductible costs" though.

There's a lot of stuff that seems unfair, I agree. I'm not here to debate that you pay more into the system as others and don't get more benefits from it - but the picture you're painting of a 70 % overall tax rate and "not a lot to live on" strikes me as a bit too grim.